If any owners/users of the Denon DN-HD2500's who have mastered the basics (it's easy !) and have got any questions about all the other features on their new units, please feel free to send me a PM.

If your PM includes your telephone number, I'm happy to call you back - daytime or evening etc (just include any unsuitable times eg "not after HH:mm" etc)

Or, if you prefer, I can simply PM you back.

Have fun...

Okay, I admit it, I ordered one today.

I got mine!

Mine came last Friday, and I used it a little on Saturday night. Awesome

So far I've only put 170 songs onto mine all in one folder, mainly because I'm not sure of the best way to set up my hard drives and folders.
I'm gonna be using an external hard drive or two and was wondering the best way to set them up.

So chaps and chapettes if you would be so kind as to let us know what are the best ways you've found to set up yours for use with your HD2500.

Jase

I have all my music on two external HDs which I just plug in to the 4 port hub that came with the machine.

Then all files are ID'd correctly when I ripped them as wave files...

I also converted them all down to 128kbs and placed on the internal HD just in case anything ever goes wrong - Not ideal, but would get me outta a scrape....

I have 2 identical external hard-drives with all my music on. (Actually I have 3, but 1 is linked to my laptop for OTS DJ as a back up, but I digress). (Actually I have 4 as I have another duplicate which stays at home....)

I have found the secret to this machine working is all about preparation.

Check all your files are ok (ie they work and are what they say they are).
Get your files tagged correctly.
Get them normalised.
Check they are tagged correctly.
Remove any VBR.
Check they are tagged again... then check again.

THEN LEAVE THEM ALONE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What I have done is create 1 folder called Denon Collection, then another called Updates. The Denon Collection folder is then split onto smaller folders called Done A, Done B, Done C etc by artist name.
This folder is complete, works and is UNTOUCHABLE ....

The second folder (Updates) has smaller folders inside for each month (June 2007, July 2007 etc) and that is where I add any new stuff, whether it is current chart music, or oldies I have just got.

Maybe not the best way to work, but it DOES WORK, and it does me fine. It takes ages, took me MONTHS, but it is worth it.

*SIDE NOTE* - if you are using OTS DJ as well as the HD2500, adding a memo point slightly increases the file size and therefore OTSDJ will not be able to find the file unless you update the OTS DJ database. Guess who found that out to his cost?????

I also found, for the people who have just bought one, take your time to get to know what everything does before you rush in and start using all the features. IT IS NOT THE EASIEST BIT OF KIT TO USE, but it is by far the best. For the first few gigs I did, I just used it as a simple player, no memos, hot starts, anything. Then I slowly moved on to the features one by one.

By doing that not only have I (touch wood) not had any problems with the machine, but I now have 99.9% faith in it. (I still carry OTS just in case, and for background music).

The other thing, dunno if this is the case for everyone, but it is for me, always turn your hub and hard drives on about a minute before the HD2500, then plug your keyboard in. That way you get no recognition issues.

Oh and one more thing before I ramble too much. Now that I am CD free, I have copied a load of CD sleeves, laminated them, and put them in a folder that goes in my laptop bag. I find they help sometimes when you cant quite put your finger on the track you want to play next...

After entering back into the DJing world after 10 years off I used mine at my first gig on Saturday night.
It was only a 2 1/2 hour stint in the end, lots of other things going on but the unit worked near perfect.
I'm a cheesy party DJ so i have my 'Top 150 floorfillers across 3 playlists' and mostly i used those. These playlisted tracks will great for most gigs i do to be honest, and then dip into Genres and Charts for others.

Only one slight fault was when switching between playlists, when you go up to playlist, the playlists disappear and then you have to go up to Playlist Name and back into playlists which is a little odd.

Other than that a really good unit.

Dave

so do you set a play list runing and then walk away from the disco ???

or do you pick tracks you want to play like you would CDs out of a case ?

becuase if you are picking tracks you want to play then you should be no where near a play list...

I have a question,

why do I have to copies of certain tracks in my database, when there is only one copy on the hard drive

Set the playlist running and walk away ... that would be fun!
Nope that's not what i have been doing. I've done a few playlists for parties (in peoples houses where they just want some music) all sequenced with Mixmeister and although you think you have a list of killer tracks, you can't see what is happening with the crowd. It makes for a decent night but not a great night!

The reason why I have gone back into Djing is to get that buzz from getting people up dancing, and the thanks / praise you get at the end of the night when you have done a good job. It's not fo the money believe me, although i am hoping to charge a decent amount for gear upkeep and to avoid the real dives.

After 10 years away I was afraid I wouldn't know what to play anymore, so the Top 150 is my 'crib list', so I might have 2 or 3 motown tracks in there, a bit of rock, and stuff i know gets people up dancing in differenr parts of the night. Saturday night they were enjoying the motown tracks, so then i would go 'off-list' and dip into Genres 60s - Motown and perhaps have a look at 60s - Northern Soul, 60s - Soul.

One of the weaknesses of the 2500 is that you can't 'flag' a track for playing later whilst browsing through the tracks. This would be very useful on the inspiration front for building a night and for dealing with requests too. I carry a pen and pad for this.

In total i carry about 2300 tracks on internal hard disk of the 2500, all genre tagged. These are all tracks i know well, so i know the suitability of a track for a paticular audience (not sure if i could do that with 50000 tracks or more). 2300 tracks is plenty of tracks to do a general party and answer a good percentage of requests i think (only time will tell).

What i've done then is have 4 lines of defence behind the 2500.
1. Spare Hard Disk
2. Ipod
3. CD's played through BU4500
4. Spare (and very cheap) Double CD deck in case it all goes belly up.

I will be using a playlist, and set it running in a few weeks for a christening for background music. In this case i will just set the crossfade time to 3 and let it play. Might use the same list for buffets if i am on my own. On Saturday my friend (roadie for the night) wanted a bit of play with the 2500 so I let him.

I guess 'my way' is just one way of using the 2500, so it would be interesting to hear what others think. I did have the unit for a 3 weeks previous to the gig to play with it and think about how I was going to utilise it, plus i read most of the forums over at denon dj.

Dave

Isn't the word "Currently" a really good word ?

I like 'When' and 'Approximately' myself ?

set up a Genre called "Crib list" or if you use the Genre to search change your top 150 all to the year 1901 so you can find them quickly...

then you can search for let say all rock in 1901...

or all disco in 1901...

and the only hits you will get back will be ones out of your top 150...

then you wont have play list problems...

Not a bad thought! I'll look at that. Denon have picked up on my issue and are testing it so we'll see what happens.

I'd need to change to 2 step searching too I guess, which i intend to try later.

Thanks

Dave

I'm considerng ordering an HD2500 the only reservation i have with it is the size of the screen any coments from any users would be appreciated.

alan

Small . takes a bit of getting used too...

but its fine, it should not be the reason you chose another controler...

this is by far the best controller available so far..